


Dragon Age Inquisition: How to Train a Bog Unicorn

by Shadow_Chaser



Series: Tales of the Bog Unicorn [3]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Bog Unicorn, Gen, I love the bog unicorn, More Bog Unicorn shenanigans, Post-In Your Heart Shall Burn, Spoilers for "In Your Heart Shall Burn" quest, The Bog Unicorn as a search and rescue dog, Trevelyan and Solas are totally bros
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-01
Updated: 2014-12-01
Packaged: 2018-02-27 18:14:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,263
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2702480
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shadow_Chaser/pseuds/Shadow_Chaser
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tales of the Bog Unicorn III - A Bog Unicorn makes for a good search-and-rescue dog, no?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dragon Age Inquisition: How to Train a Bog Unicorn

**Author's Note:**

> Author's Notes:  
> Bog Unicorn. Nuff said. Also, human female mage – aka Lady Trevelyan. Yes, she has a first name, no I am not using her first name. She can be your Lady Trevelyan or mine. Point being, she is on the romance path with Cullen.
> 
> Fair Warning: Major spoilers for picking a side in the Mage-Templar War and onwards. You have been warned.

DAI: How to Train a Bog Unicorn

by: Shadow Chaser

 

 

**Story:**

 

The singing had faded somewhat, but it was also due to the winds carrying the survivors' voices in the opposite direction. Trevelyan shivered a little bit as she wrapped the blanket-turned-makeshift-cloak tighter around her. She stared out into the vast expanse of the Frostback Mountains, noting that even though they were technically in a valley area, there were still more valleys and crevasses that led deep down into the endless ravines of the mountains.

“How do you think Corypheus found the orb?” she asked as she felt a bit of heat near her right side, Solas conjuring up a small ball of flame that he encased in a barrier orb to at least give them some warmth standing away from the main fires of the camp.

“I...do not know...” she did not stare at Solas, but could hear something off in his voice, something that sounded a bit like regret.

“I will not and do not blame the elves for this, Solas,” she flicked a quick look at him to see something else flit across his expression before he gave her a grimacing smile, “you of all people should know that I value the knowledge and traditions your kind has preserved through so many hardships.”

“I know,” Solas replied as he absently rolled the ball of flame from hand to hand, staring mostly at it, or through it, deep in thought.

She would have conjured up her own fireball to warm herself except she could still feel the magick inside of her swirling unsteadily, exhausted, harried, prickling with a fight or flight instinct. There was also the bone deep exhaustion she felt physically, her injuries still pulling their pain at her, the cuts not healed. She had only woken up recently and she knew that if she cast any spells, it would surely either kill her or make her fall unconscious even before the spell was cast. Magical exhaustion was something she was very familiar with, her Harrowing the stuff of legends at the Ostwick Circle – she had been surprised that no one in the group, Vivienne especially, had known the story or had even mentioned it. Surely it would have filtered through the Chantry gossip, especially through the Templars.

She was able to make a move to leave Solas to his thoughts, sensing a disquiet melancholy about the Fade dreamer, when he suddenly shifted a bit. “He was the one who led us to you, my friend,” he said quietly and Trevelyan stared at him for a second before he turned and a small smile appeared on his angular face.

“Your bog unicorn,” he clarified and she tilted her head a little, a sudden swooping feeling of something she could not identify filling her. Soggy! She had forgotten all about Soggy in the frantic attack on Haven! She knew that the horses had been used as both pack and for soldiers as they evacuated, but she had been frantic in saving everyone that she had seen Soggy's stable empty and thought that he had either run away or had fled somewhere during the attack. Soggy had not liked people attacking them while they had been riding in the Hinterlands and up through the Storm Coast. Oddly, Soggy delighted in viciously attacking those in the Fallow Mire, but Trevelyan had thought it was because he had been so used to keeping malevolent spirits away and so the Mire was perhaps familiar ground.

“Is he-”

“Safe, stabled, pawing curiously at the snow like any other animal who had never seen it,” Solas' small smile turned wider, the veil of melancholy lifting away, replaced by an ease and friendliness that Trevelyan was used to. Solas was probably one of the first friends she had made after the aftermath of the conclave – more than likely because she kept pestering him about the Fade and his dreams in there and he indulged her endless curiosity about the subject that she had not been allowed to study at Ostwick. She never knew the reason why, but figured it was more than likely due to what happened at her Harrowing.

“He's not eating it is he?” she had no idea what cold snow would do to an undead creature like Soggy.

“Thankfully no, but he has been a carrion for the wolves we have killed, cleaning their bones after we've taken the meat for consumption,” Solas shrugged, his smile wistful, “he is a wondrous creature, of both the Fade and of this world. I still do not know what to make of him.”

“How on Maker did you train him to search for me? Or,” she lifted her left hand, the Rift magick sparking and glowing green on the scar itself, “did he smell this or something?” Every time she had gone to visit Soggy or brush him, or even ride him, he always held his nose towards her left hand, more than likely drawn towards it for whatever reason. There was nothing outward or hostile about it, but he seemed to like resting his nose on the tear, breathing it in or perhaps just feeling its unique magick around it.

“Actually...” Solas' wide smile became a little more teasing, “it was Commander Cullen.”

All thoughts in Trevelyan's head screeched to a halt as she whipped her head around to stare at Solas, “Excuse me?”

“The Commander, well, a lot of us, Cassandra, Varric, and I included, had seen you face off against Corypheus after we were separated from you by his dragon. I can only guess what happened, but we saw you fire the trebuchet and fall. When the three of us met up with the rest of the survivors, it was the Commander who immediately grabbed the scrap of cloth from one of your old armors that was in your trunk and shoved it towards your bog unicorn,” Solas explained, gesturing with his hand towards her, “...Soggy...”

Trevelyan grinned at Solas' abrupt pause as he mouthed Soggy's name again in silence before shaking his head. She realized that this was the first time he had ever tried to even say her bog unicorn's name. Everyone else either called it the 'undead creature,' 'that thing,' 'the bog creature,' 'the-bog-horse-with-a-sword-through-it's-head,' or some vairation thereof.

“Soggy...or, rather, I believe the Commander had been teaching a few things to your horse, or perhaps knew more about its capabilities than either, but your horse took one sniff at the cloth before bolting. The Commander and the rest of the search party followed,” Solas shrugged, “that's how we found you in the snow.”

“I'll have to thank the Commander for his efforts,” it was the second time that Trevelyan was aware of the Commander doing something for her mount that she was only peripherally aware of. She wondered if he was secretly a horse master or knew more about horses than anyone let on. But he seemed to keep mostly to himself about Soggy or anything that he was doing for the undead creature, but a part of her was deeply touched once more by his actions. She knew she had been close to dying and had even thought that she had been hallucinating Cullen, Cassandra, and the others' voices when she had all but collapsed into the snow.

As she stared back out into the inky darkness of the mountains and the night, she missed the impishly wistful smile on Solas' face, as if he could see something about her and the Commander that she could not yet.

 

~END~

 


End file.
